We’re starting to get those wetter days we all know and love. Job wise nothing much is happening; I had a chat with a recruitment consultant from Germany yesterday, and I quickly found out that my German could not be described yet as fluent. Ah well, plenty more study is required – and since time is the one thing I have a lot of now, I have no excuse. My hopes of moving to Nottingham, cruelly dashed a few weeks ago, are now potentially alive again. Is it really too much to ask that I live in a city I’m comfortable in? As for actually getting work, I fear that my working days are now over. Seems that those recruiting prefer to look at folk in their 20s, and when you get 100 or 150 people applying for each job, they have an easy choice to make. Doesn’t stop me being brought into the Job Centre for meaningless “help” sessions. I understand the next Conservative government are going to clamp even harder on those unfortunate to be out of work. So they’ll end up spending more on admin, surveillance etc when in reality the answer is to create jobs! Ah well, easy to see why I’m not a politician!

Well here goes – a post that no-one will find interesting at all (no change there then!)

A link to a hit from the 60s – except it’s a German hit (Drafi Deutscher).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8twYCFACPjY

And here’s the lyrics, with my (bad) translation. Enjoy!

Weine nicht, wenn der Regen fällt, es gibt einen, der zu dir hält.

Don’t whine if the rain falls, there is one who holds to you.

Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht, aber unsere Liebe nicht.

Marble, stone and iron breaks, but not our love.

Alles, alles geht vorbei, doch wir sind uns treu.

Everything, everything passes, however, we are loyal to ourselves.

Kann ich einmal nicht bei dir sein, denk daran, du bist nicht allein.

If I cannot be for once with you, remember, you are not alone.

Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht, aber unsere Liebe nicht.

Marble, stone and iron breaks, but not our love.

Alles, alles geht vorbei, doch wir sind uns treu.

Everything, everything passes, however, we are loyal to ourselves.

Nimm den goldenen Ring von mir, bist du traurig, dann sagt er dir:

Take the golden ring off me, if you are sad, it says to you:

Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht, aber unsere Liebe nicht.

Marble, stone and iron breaks, but not our love.

Alles, alles geht vorbei, doch wir sind uns treu.

Everything, everything passes, however, we are loyal to ourselves.

Last couple of weeks I’ve had the use of a car to get to work. Just 20 minutes on average. Considering it normally  takes up to 2 hours each way (often because I have to wait 20 minutes for a connecting bus) and you can see why I’m quite happy at the moment, despite the gloomy weather we’ve been having. Actually that’s overstating it, as we did get a few glimpses of sunshine at the weekend. Unfortunately I’m back to the dire public transport next week. Ah well, good while it lasted; but an end now to getting home before 7.

Another development – I’ve subscribed to “Schau ins Land” – a language listening and reading package in German. It’s going to be costing me close on 20 pounds an issue , but I have to say that on first appearances it’s worth it (even in these days of youtube clips and german language websites). The material is testing but both topical and interesting. It’s going to be really cool listening to the tracks on my long bus journeys to work, and being able to read explanations of the expressions at the same time. If my German doesn’t improve after this, I’ll have to give up!!

a) Recovering from the job accomplished. You know the feeling; you get jaded if not exhausted, and need a few days to re-charge batteries…

b) Visting Glasgow. Great place, great people. If only I can get my next contract there…

c) Applying for jobs. Since most of these are via job boards, the actuall application doesn’t take too long (thank God; I hate filling out application forms). However the search bit is time-consuming, and needs to be done on a daily basis.

d) Studying the web-site CSS stuff (again). Amazing how much the brain can forgot when it’s not in use!

e) German grammar exercises. I didn’t manage to sort out my enrolment on a course (yet). But I’m determined to get to that “survival” ability in the language.

f) Perfecting my Shepherd’s Pie cooking skills!

Just as well I’m not currently working – I haven’t got time to do what I’m doing (it doesn’t help that I spend far too much time surfing the web). Booked a coach ticket for myself and better half today – we’re off to Glasgow for a few days next week. I’ve got to do my research/revision for a job interview next Friday. Plus, I need to go over to London tomorrow, to see if I can book myself onto a German course at the Goethe Institute. So, for the moment, my intentions to get back into web creation, have had to take a back-burner. Never mind catch up on my reading. Still, better to be like this, than bored out of my skin. I remember those teenage days – horrible times!

Here are some language sites I’ve found useful. Firstly, the German ones..
Young German
Schlaflos in Munich

A couple of spanish links now..
Notes From Spain
spanish-english

More general help:
Lingo links
WordReference
Minority Languages (recommended)

Lastly, is there anyone out there?